This application claims the priority of International Application No. PCT/DE2008/000067, filed Jan. 16, 2008, and German Patent Document No. 10 2007 003 028.4, filed Jan. 20, 2007, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a turbine engine, in particular a gas turbine.
A turbo engine having a stator and a rotor is known from German Patent Document No. DE 10 2004 037 955 A1, wherein the rotor has rotor blades and the stator has a housing and guide vanes. The rotor blades at the rotor side form at least one blade ring, which adjoins, on a radially outer end, a radially inner housing wall of the housing, is surrounded by the housing wall and delimits therewith a radial gap. The radially inner housing wall of the housing is designated as the outer ring and serves in particular as a substrate for an intake coating. Furthermore, it is known from DE 10 2004 037 955 A1 that the gap between the outer ring of the housing and the radially outer end of the or each blade ring can be set or adjusted in terms of its clearance via adjusting elements to provide so-called Active Clearance Control, in order to thereby influence the gap and guarantee an optimal gap position in all operating conditions. To do so, according DE 10 2004 037 955 A1, the radially inner housing wall or the outer ring is segmented in the peripheral direction, whereby a separate adjusting element is preferably assigned to every segment. The adjusting elements are preferably designed as electromechanical actuators. The arrangement of the electromechanical actuators, which act on the segments of the radially inner housing wall or the outer ring, occupies relatively a lot of construction space, thereby increasing the overall dimensions of the turbo engine.
Starting herefrom, the present invention is based on the objective of creating a novel turbo engine with Active Clearance Control, which features smaller dimensions.
According to this, the outer ring is concentrically surrounded by an adjusting element that is configured as a union ring, wherein opposite faces of the outer ring and the adjusting element have the contour of a truncated cone, and wherein cylindrical rolling bodies are positioned between the outer ring and the adjusting element, the rolling bodies being put at an oblique angle in relation to the axial direction in the radial direction and in the peripheral direction, thereby making it possible for the adjusting element to be rotated in relation to the outer ring while simultaneously adjusting the gap.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the outer ring is concentrically surrounded by an adjusting element that is configured as a union ring, wherein opposite faces of the outer ring and the adjusting element have a cylindrical contour, and wherein clamp-body-like, non-cylindrical rolling bodies are positioned between the outer ring and the adjusting element, the rolling bodies having a deviating radial extension depending upon their rotational position, thereby making it possible for the adjusting element to be rotated in relation to the outer ring while simultaneously adjusting the gap.
According to a third aspect of the invention, the outer ring is concentrically surrounded by an adjusting element that is configured as a union ring, wherein opposite faces of the outer ring and the adjusting element are contoured such that one of the faces has a cylindrical contour and the other of the faces has a ramp-like contour, and wherein cylindrical rolling bodies are positioned between the outer ring and the adjusting element, thereby making it possible for the adjusting element to be rotated in relation to the outer ring while simultaneously adjusting the gap.
The inventive concepts of Active Clearance Control on a turbo engine make do with relatively little construction space so that the overall dimension of a turbo engine only increases negligibly. In addition, because of the relatively simple structural design, the turbo engine is also not susceptible to wear. Furthermore, only a small amount of adjusting force is required to rotate the ring-like adjusting element in relation to the outer ring to adjust the gap. A further advantage is that the involved components are predominantly stressed by tension and pressure, but are not subject to any, or to only slight, bending stress.
Preferred further developments of the invention are disclosed in the following specification. Without being limited hereto, exemplary embodiments of the invention are explained in greater detail on the basis of the drawings.